LXII THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



Soon after taking up the investigation it was found, as mentioned 

 above, that large suppHes of heHum were available in the natural 

 gas fields of Southern Alberta, and that a small supply could be 

 obtained from a gas field situated about twenty-five miles to the 

 south-west of the city of Hamilton, in Ontario. In 1917 the Board 

 of Invention and Research decided to endeavour to exploit these 

 sources of supply, and operations were begun by setting up, as already 

 stated, a small experimental station near the city of Hamilton. 



At this station efforts were directed towards constructing a 

 machine which would efficiently and economically separate out the 

 helium from the other constituents present in the natural gas. The 

 carrying out of this work expeditiously was made possible through 

 the hearty co-operation of L'Air Liquide Société of Paris and Toronto, 

 who generously lent, free of cost, a Claude oxygen column and the 

 necessar}^ auxiliary liquefying equipment for the investigation. 



By making suitable additions to, and modifications in, this 

 oxygeïi rectifying column, it was ascertained that the problem of 

 separating, on a commercial scale, the helium which was present in 

 this crude gas to the extent of only 0.33 per cent, was one capable of 

 satisfactory solution. Early in 1918 it was found possible to raise 

 the percentage of helium in the gas to 5.0 by passing it through the 

 special rectifying column only, and as the gas obtained in this way 

 consisted of nitrogen and helium with a small percentage of methane, 

 it became, therefore, a comparatively simple matter to obtain helium 

 of a high degree of purity. In one particular set of experiments on 

 this final rectification helium of 87 per cent, purity was obtained. 



Experimental Station at Calgary, Alberta 



In order to operate on the natural gas of the Bow Island system 

 in Southern Alberta an experimental station was established at 

 Calgary in the autumn of 1918, and, starting with the knowledge 

 acquired through the preliminary operations at Hamilton, rapid 

 progress was made in developing a rectification and purifying column, 

 together with the requisite auxiliary equipment, which would efficiently 

 and cheaply separate the helium from the natural gas. A machine 

 was therefore designed, constructed, and supplied with piping which 

 possessed great flexibility, and, in its general scheme, followed the 

 lines of the Claude oxygen-producing column. It was unnecessary, 

 the lecturer stated, to go into details regarding the operation of this 

 machine. It would suffice to say that it was tested under a variety 

 of conditions. Notes were taken of the temperatures reached at 



